From the Capital-Journal
When Shawnee County last Thursday enforced new weight limits on the aged Willard Bridge, barring full-sized school buses from crossing, Kaw Valley Unified School District 321 switched to smaller buses. The northwest Shawnee County district, which includes Rossville and St. Marys, thought the buses were light enough to cross that it could save kids from an extra 20 minutes spent on the bus. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out.
“The buses are fine empty, but there were concerns we were going over the weight limits once kids came on,” said superintendent Kerry Lacock. “We’re just not willing to take a chance. We can’t take any students across on the bridge.”
Starting Friday, USD 321 students went back to riding the regular sized buses, forcing at least two bus routes out to Interstate 70 and around to Maple Hill to get to the small towns of Willard and Valencia — an 18.4 mile trip, compared with the 3 miles it takes to cross the bridge, he said. That adds about 20 minutes to the ride for about 119 students who rely on those bus routes to get home, he said. About 78 live south of the bridge.
“It’s a major inconvenience for those students,” Lacock said.
The detour also will be a strain on district resources. Six trips a day now have to go around the bridge, amounting to an additional 15,750 miles each school year.
Thankfully, with gas prices as low as they are, the district should make it through the end of the school year, Lacock said.
“We’re still calculating that, but the feeling is that we are very lucky that fuel prices are where they are,” he said. “If the prices were at the higher end, we would be in serious trouble.”
However, the district will have to come up with a more permanent solution: As of now, funding to replace the bridge is at least two years off.
“This is how we’re going to manage through end of the year, but we’re going to explore every option,” Lacock said.
The new weight limits prohibiting most heavy traffic from crossing the bridge, formally called the N.W. Carlson Road Bridge over the Kansas River, came after a recent inspection downgraded its safety rating from 50.7 in 2013 to 23.7, out of a scale to 100. The county has known for several years the bridge needed to be replaced — weight limits were reduced in 2007 as well — but the rapid deterioration, caused primarily by people not abiding those weight limits, increased that urgency.
The reduced weight limits are an effort to extend the life of the 60-year-old bridge just a bit longer, until the county can find the $24.6 million needed to replace it. As a result, USD 321 buses had to find an alternate route to reach south of the bridge.
Other students will be affected by the detour as well, Lacock said. Some who live in town will have to use different buses, and some high school students will be picked up several minutes later, while the buses drop off elementary students on the way to the high school, he said.
Parents are upset, he said, but not so much upset with the district as they are with the situation.
“There’s not a lot they can do,” Lacock said. “If that bridge doesn’t get fixed, it will be a major inconvenience” to people who come into the community.
The Shawnee County Commission for the past few weeks has been focused on finding solutions to the bridge’s deterioration. Two weeks ago, it spent an hour discussing the bridge’s safety and heard from nine people in the community, many of whom asked the county to replace the bridge as soon as possible.
Then, on Thursday, the commission took two decisive steps toward securing funding, both locally and federally.
Commissioners Bob Archer, Shelly Buhler and Kevin Cook unanimously approved dedicating to the bridge the county’s share of excess money from the current half-cent sales tax, which expires Dec. 31, 2016. That amount currently is estimated at $6 million, which, Buhler said, would be right about the 20 percent local match generally required for federal funds.
In meeting with state and federal representatives, Buhler said, that financial commitment from the county is a show of good faith that will help leverage more funding.
The commission also unanimously approved sending a letter to the city of Topeka, urging the council to quickly approve the proposed interlocal agreement. The county’s proposed price list, approved in November, includes $2.17 million per year to county bridges. That would come to $32.5 million during the life of the tax. The city previously considered putting $21.6 million toward county bridges.
“We are very happy that the commission has decided to dedicate and set aside the funds that they can,” Lacock said.
Meanwhile, people in the Willard and Rossville communities have been more watchful of the vehicles crossing the bridge, he said. And the Kansas Highway Patrol has been spotted more frequently as well.
“I think that’s the appropriate way of helping to make sure it is enforced,” he said.
